Photometric and spectroscopic observations of (2060) Chiron at the ESO Very Large Telescope^*

¹ Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France
² Institut d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France
³ Centro de Astronomia e Astrofisica da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Corresponding author: J. Romon-Martin, jennifer.romon@obspm.fr

Received: 7 June 2002
Accepted: 9 December 2002

Abstract

Photometric and spectroscopic observations of Centaur Chiron have been obtained at the ESO/Very Large Telescope (VLT), both in optical and near-infrared spectral ranges, on 12–14 June 2001. Photometric optical data reveal that Chiron had reached a high activity level at that time. No absorption feature could be seen on the spectra; especially, no water ice could be detected.